DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites a data layer “painted” on an interactive timeline. It is not clear from the claims or specification what is meant by “painted”, e.g. if it refers to a specific way of displaying data.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-7, 26 and 28-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Own (US 20190287759 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Own teaches a system for selectively managing different temporal and/or spatial resolution images and metadata (TEM system, [0074], with different resolutions, [0084]; system stores metadata, [0185]) collected during a transmission electron microscope (TEM) session, the system comprising:
A transmission electron microscope (10, fig. 4A):
A computer system (controller 600) communicatively coupled to the transmission electron microscope, the computer system comprising:
A memory ([0080]);
A data storage (cloud storage, [0085]); and
At least one processor ([0079]) configured for:
Continuously receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a lower temporal and/or spatial resolution (lower resolution survey images in real time, [0084]; continuously acquired images, [0139]); and
Selectively receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a higher temporal and/or spatial resolution (user requests high resolution image, [0084]).
Regarding claim 2, Own teaches that the data includes a plurality of images ([0084]) and associated metadata ([0185]).
Regarding claim 3, Own teaches that selectively receiving the higher resolution data is performed in response to a trigger (user request, [0084]).
Regarding claim 4, Own teaches that selectively receiving the higher resolution data includes communicating with the transmission electron microscope for selectively recording the higher resolution data (user request for higher resolution image is transferred by user interface, [0084]).
Regarding claim 5, Own teaches that the selective recording of the higher temporal resolution and/or spatial resolution images is manually triggered by a user interacting with a imaging software ([0084]).
Regarding claim 6, Own teaches that the system may automatically trigger the recording of higher temporal or spatial resolution images ([0155]).
Regarding claim 7, Own teaches automatically triggering the recording of the higher temporal resolution and/or spatial resolution images is based on the data captured at a lower temporal and/or spatial resolution (processing images to determine whether to increase resolution at that location, [0155]).
Regarding claim 26, Own teaches that the processor is configured for applying data management practices to the image data streams (e.g. adjusting datastream mode and latencies, predictively caching data, [0165]).
Regarding claim 28, Own teaches a computer system (controller 600) for selectively managing different temporal and/or spatial resolution images and metadata (TEM system, [0074], with different resolutions, [0084]; system stores metadata, [0185]) collected during a transmission electron microscope (TEM) session, the system comprising:
A memory ([0080]);
A database ([0191]) and
At least one processor ([0079]) configured for:
Continuously receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a lower temporal and/or spatial resolution (lower resolution survey images in real time, [0084]); and
Selectively receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a higher temporal and/or spatial resolution (user requests high resolution image, [0084]).
Regarding claim 29, Own teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions to be implemented on at least one computing device including at least one processor (controller 600), the instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one computing device to perform a method for selectively managing different temporal and/or spatial resolution images and metadata collected during a transmission electron microscope (TEM) session (TEM system, [0074], with different resolutions, [0084]; system stores metadata, [0185]), the method comprising:
Continuously receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a lower temporal and/or spatial resolution (lower resolution survey images in real time, [0084]); and
Selectively receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a higher temporal and/or spatial resolution (user requests high resolution image, [0084]).
Regarding claim 30, Own teaches a method for selectively managing different temporal and/or spatial resolution images and metadata collected during a transmission electron microscope (TEM) session, the method comprising (TEM system, [0074], with different resolutions, [0084]; system stores metadata, [0185]):
By a transmission electron microscope and a computer system (controller 600) communicatively coupled to the transmission electron microscope:
Continuously receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a lower temporal and/or spatial resolution (lower resolution survey images in real time, [0084]); and
Selectively receiving, from the transmission electron microscope, data captured at a higher temporal and/or spatial resolution (user requests high resolution image, [0084]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11-14, 19-24 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Own in view of Walden II (US 20210112203 A1).
Regarding claim 8, Own teaches all the limitations of claim 2 as described above. Own does not teach that the processor is further configured for generating a visual representation of the image data and the metadata in an interactive timeline format.
Walden II teaches a TEM system with a processor configured for generating a visual representation of image data and metadata in an interactive timeline format (time series of images with information, [0335-0336], figs. 84-85).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Own to have the interactive timeline of Walden II, as a matter of applying the software of Walden II to the TEM system of Own in order to provide an efficient presentation of data to the user in a known matter.
Regarding claim 9, Walden II teaches that the processor is configured for scrubbing the images and plot data to allow a user to interact with the TEM session (image scrubber, [0036]).
Regarding claim 11, Own teaches all the limitations of claim 1 as described above. Own does not teach that the processor is further configured for synchronizing a lower resolution data stream comprising information captured at the lower temporal resolution and/or lower spatial resolution with a higher resolution data stream comprising information captured at the higher temporal resolution and/or higher spatial resolution.
Walden teaches a processor for a TEM system which can use metadata to synchronize multiple data streams ([0225]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Own to be able to synchronize the incoming data by comparing metadata as taught by Walden, (which would result in synchronizing the low and high resolution images of Own as these are separate data streams), in order to allow easier comparison of the images from the data streams by the user with no unexpected result.
Regarding claim 12, Walden II teaches that the data streams are synchronized using a software application (AXON synchronicity, [0225]).
Regarding claim 13, Own teaches that the software application is executed on multiple different computers (process may be implemented on multiple computers, [0189]).
Regarding claim 14, Walden teaches that storage of the data streams is distributed across one or more data storage devices (data distributed across different computers, [0114]).
Regarding claim 19, Own teaches all the limitations of claim 1 as described above. Own does not teach that the processor is further configured for performing drift correction during the TEM session in real time or near real time.
Walden II teaches a TEM system having a processor that performs drift correction during a TEM session in real-time (correction during in-situ studies, [0110]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Own to have the drift correction of Walden II, in order to ensure that the beam impacts the correct spot on the specimen as taught by Walden II.
Regarding claim 20, Walden II teaches performing physical drift correction (altering electron control component, [0131]).
Regarding claim 21, Walden II teaches performing digital drift correction (calculating drift vector and performing digital registration, [0118]).
Regarding claim 22, performing the drift correction of Walden II on the images of Own would result in the data of Own comprising drift-corrected images.
Regarding claim 23, Walden II teaches that drift correction performed on the higher resolution images and metadata is based on the lower resolution images and metadata ([0120], system calculates drift rate using lower resolution data and alerts user to select parameters (metadata) for higher resolution imaging, and performs drift correction for higher resolution imaging).
Regarding claim 24, Own teaches that the processor is configured for saving the higher resolution (drift-corrected in the combination with Walden II) images and metadata in addition to the lower resolution images and metadata (i.e. all data is stored).
Regarding claim 27, Own teaches all the limitations of claim 26 as described above. Own does not teach that the applied data management practice includes one or more of saving every Nth image of the continuously captured plurality of images, digitally summing pixels in a blocked average, digitally summing in a rolling average, digitally averaging pixels in a blocked average, digitally averaging pixels in a rolling average, binning images from a first pixel resolution to a second pixel resolution, and selectively receiving the images at their original speed and resolution.
Walden II teaches a TEM system in which a processor can bin images from a first pixel resolution to a second pixel resolution ([0205]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the processor of Own to perform the binning taught by Walden II, in order to assist in using the images for computing with no unexpected result.
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Own in view of Walden II and in further view of Chou (US 20200105500 A1).
Regarding claim 25, Own and Walden II teach all the limitations of claim 19 as described above. Own and Walden II do not teach that the processor is configured for saving the higher resolution drift corrected images and metadata instead of the lower resolution drift corrected images and metadata.
Chou teaches a microscopy system in which low resolution images can be replaced by higher resolution images ([0015]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Own and Walden II to have low resolution images (including metadata and drift correction) be replaced with higher resolution images, in order to minimize the storage needs of the system by storing only the most important data.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 15-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art does not disclose or make obvious a TEM system with continuous low temporal and/or spatial resolution data and selectively captured high temporal and/or spatial resolution data, in which either an interactive timeline has a data layer showing any available higher temporal and/or spatial resolution data, synchronization between the low and high resolution data streams is based on an indication in a first data storage location that higher resolution data is available in a second data storage location, or synchronizing the data streams includes comparing the low resolution data stream with the high resolution data stream as part of an image analysis.
In the prior art, Stewart (JP 2012099481 A) teaches a TEM system with a timeline view, but does not teach the high resolution data layer of the present claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID E SMITH whose telephone number is (571)270-7096. The examiner can normally be reached M to F 8:30 AM-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert Kim can be reached at 22293. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID E SMITH/ Examiner, Art Unit 2881
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